Qualities of a Software Developer

I studied software development in 1995 at Peninsula Technikon. Peninsula Technikon is now Cape Peninsula University of Technology. I graduated Cum Laude in Information Technology. Way back we were not called Software Developers but Programmers. What was pretty strange is that I never touched a computer before my first day in class. I jokingly asked the guy next to me "Why do we work so much on computers in this early stage of our studies?".

What was amazing is that the lecturers at Peninsula Technikon taught us very much not as such the programming languages, but they imprinted in us very critical skills like

• Problem Solving
• Analytical Thinking
• Critical Thinking
• Teamwork
• Positive attitude
• Communication
• Quick Learning ability
• End user focused
• Patience
• Attention to detail
• Curiosity
• Teaching others

The qualities and skills of a software developer are so critical in the new age business environment because they will tell whether you love your trade or not.

What I find very interesting is that the programming languages change over years but the core of the software developer remains the same. My introduction to programming hovered around the following languages.

• COBOL - I remember the Commercial Program to do a hotel Reservation
• Pascal - I remember the famous Pascal Coin Program
• C - I remember the famous DOS menu page with the ASCII Characters
• Progress - We created programs with only three lines of code (4GL)
• Free Lab Languages that I explored were Basic and Clarion

Now more than twenty years in the industry my programming languages had evolved. The Pragramming treasure chest now contains CSharp (C#), ASP.Net, .Net Core, Xamarin, WCF, WebAPI, ReST, Kotlin, SQL Server, Python, Design Patterns, Object Oriented Programming, AngualJs, PHP, MySQL, Microservices, IoT, Continuous Integration, Machine Learning and many more.

Though the Programming Languages change and new ones gets introduced and learned, Though the SDLC is replaced with SCRUM, Kanban. Project Management is now some high-level term that gets directed by Product Owners. Though the 286 processor is now the Snapdragon, Though the CRT is now the flatscreen, Though the big box with the Pentium 486 DX2 is now the I7. Though the 40GB HDD is now a Terabyte SSD.

The Only thing that remains constant are those qualities that were embeded in us a aspirant Software Developers.